Chapter 65- Dungeon

[Luna POV]

It took a few days for the generals to finish their get-together.  Since Nia was going to join us in our dungeon runs, Velvet and I went around the capital to procure supplies.  I also had to get some custom light armor that fit me.  After all of these things were done, it was time to go to the dungeon.

Right now, we were on our way there.  We picked up some simple dungeon quests from the guild that wanted us to collect some plants from the third floor.

“You good, Luna?” (Nia)

“For now.  This is just a feeling, but I think I’ll be relatively fine until we get to the fifth floor.  After that, I don’t know.” (Luna)

“Is that the floor that THAT happened?” (Velvet)

“Yeah, that’s the floor that traps start appearing.” (Luna)

“How many floors does this dungeon have?” (Velvet)

“50.  The first 25 will be cave like and the rest will have different environments.” (Nia)

“Do people regularly clear it?” (Luna)

“The guild sends people to clear it annually so that monsters don’t overflow from it.” (Nia)

‘Hey Tamamo, do you know anything else about dungeons?’

{Anything you want to know specifically?}

‘What is the purpose of dungeons and why can they be cleared multiple times?’

{I think it’s fine if I tell you, but you can’t share it with anyone else.  Dungeons regulate Ether, which is the stuff that creates mana.  Dungeons are places that excess Ether is stored until it dilutes into mana, that mana turns into a core that produces monsters.  As for the other question, dungeons need to be, for lack of a better word, cleaned to do their job efficiently, so Grey has the adventurers go around and dive into dungeons to do this.  He is also the reason that items appear in dungeons.}

‘So, Grey has the Authority over dungeons?’

{Actually, that falls under the Authority of Adventure.}

‘That’s weird.’

{What can I say, it’s an ambiguous Authority to have.  It holds sway over anything anyone can consider an adventure, that includes finding things on said adventures.}

‘I don’t even know what to say about that.’

{Just don’t think too much about it.}

“Luna, we’re about to be there.” (Nia)

{Just remember that I’m always here for you Luna.  If it starts to get to be too much, you can vent your frustrations to me.}

‘Thanks Tamamo.’

We came up on an open space that had several buildings that were built around a cave entrance.

“There are more buildings here than I remember.” (Luna)

“A lot of things change in 15 years, Luna.” (Nia)

“That’s true.” (Luna)

It looked like there were several inns, about three blacksmiths, an alchemist, an apothecary, several general shops, and a small guild branch.

“Out of curiosity, what do you remember being here, Luna?” (Velvet)

“Hmm.  I remember that there was only two inns and a guild branch.” (Luna)

“Yeah, at that time this dungeon was relatively new so there wasn’t much here.” (Nia)

“I don’t remember, but were we supposed to be the ones to first finish the dungeon?” (Luna)

“No, the first people that cleared this dungeon was a mixed group of adventurers and knights.  The heroes were sent here to clear it the third time.” (Nia)

“So, I’m guessing that I’m the only one who doesn’t have any dungeon experience?” (Velvet)

“Technically yes, but I don’t really think four full floors and half of a fifth counts as much experience.” (Luna)

“I agree with Luna, I wouldn’t count that as being experienced in dungeon diving.” (Nia)

“What do the two of you want to do, get some rooms in one of the inns, or do you want me to teleport us back and forth from the capital?” (Luna)

“Can you do that?” (Nia)

“I can for sure if we’re outside the dungeon, I’m not sure about when we’re inside though.  I’ll have to test that out before we really start diving.” (Luna)

“Let’s see if you can from inside first, then we can decide.” (Velvet)

We walked over to the entrance of the dungeon and were about to go in when I started to get a bit nervous.  Looking into the entrance felt like staring into a void that ate all traces of light.  I started to tremble a little and I could feel cold sweat running down my back.

{You’ll be fine, Luna.  This is different from last time, you can trust the people you’re with.}

‘I know that; it’s just that my body doesn’t want me to continue.’

{You can do it.}

I closed my eyes and took a few deep breaths to calm down.  When I opened my eyes again, I saw Nia and Velvet waiting for me.

“Take your time, Luna.” (Velvet)

“We’ll be with you the whole way, so relax a bit.” (Nia)

I took a few more deep breaths and then I stepped inside the dungeon.  Once inside, I felt the difference in atmosphere that comes from places saturated with a lot of mana.

“Let’s head in a little deeper before I try teleporting.  I don’t want others to see that I can do that as much as possible.”

““Right.””

We headed deeper and turned a corner.  After making sure there were no other people around, I tried teleporting.

“How is it, Luna?” (Nia)

“I’ll be able to teleport us to the entrance, but that’s it.  There is too much interference from atmospheric mana to go any further.  My guess is that the deeper we go, the less I can teleport.  It won’t stop me from using the blink spell, but long-distance is out of the picture pretty much.” (Luna)

“I say we get a few rooms in one of the inns.” (Nia)

“Why not just teleport to the capital after exiting the dungeon?” (Velvet)

“It’s not that simple, Velvet, when I said too much interference, I mean that the only reason I would be able to bring us to the entrance is because I have a stupid amount of mana.  I think a normal person with space magic wouldn’t be able to teleport from the second floor to the entrance.  If we want an easy way out of the dungeon, we’ll need to decide if you want me to teleport us to the entrance or back and forth from the capital.” (Luna)

“Then staying at an inn it is.” (Velvet)

We left the dungeon and decided on the inn we were staying at.  It was called Delver’s Rest, and it was run by a bear beastman.  Since we didn’t know how long we were going to stay here, we decided to get a three-person room instead of three separate rooms like we were going to at first.

Once we got our room, we left the inn and went back to the dungeon.

“Nia, which floor did we need to go to for the quests we picked up.” (Luna)

“The third floor, it shouldn’t take us long to get there, though we can go slow if you need us to, Luna.  You don’t need to force yourself.” (Nia)

“I’m fine for now, but if I start feeling bad, I’ll let the both of you know.” (Luna)

“What things do we need to watch out for on the first three floors?” (Velvet)

“Unless things have changed, it’ll mostly be goblins and I think slimes.” (Luna)

“Luna is right.  We’ll run into these weak things until floor 10, after that, we’ll run into things like trolls and the like.  Floor five till 20 have traps and the five after that are big monster houses.  I’ll explain the last 25 floors after that when we get there.” (Nia)

“I guess I’ll only really start to level some when we get to the second half of the dungeon then.” (Luna)

“What is your level right now, Luna?” (Nia)

“21.” (Luna)

“What about you, Velvet?” (Nia)

“45.” (Velvet)

“Well, considering Luna’s stats, we’ll easily be able to make it to around floor 30 with little trouble.” (Nia)

“How many times have you cleared this dungeon, Nia?” (Velvet)

“Only twice, and the last time was eight years ago.” (Nia)

“Then do you know the layout of the dungeon?” (Luna)

“No, it changes after every annual clear and I didn’t get the most recent map.” (Nia)

“Well, you can leave mapping to me, while teleporting is difficult, other space magic is usable enough and I can use a spell to learn the layout in a wide area around us.” (Luna)

“Doesn’t that spell give you a massive headache when you use it?” (Velvet)

“It does, but the more I use it, the more manageable it gets.  The parallel processing skill helps a lot too.” (Luna)

After a few minutes we ran into a group of goblins that were promptly atomized by some lightning.

“They smell even worse in here than they do outside.” (Luna)

“I understand that Luna, but please say something next time you use lightning magic.  It’s dangerous to use that kind of magic inside cave dungeons like this, you know.  The same goes for fire magic, Velvet.” (Nia)

“I’ll stick to dark magic then since my sword isn’t really suited to cave combat.” (Velvet)

“Want me to go with my scout skills or ice and illusion magic?” (Luna)

“Either is fine for now, but when we start running into traps, we’ll be relying on your scout skills.” (Nia)

Hearing Nia talk about traps in the dungeon caused me to shake a bit.

‘I’m starting to get fed up with my body’s reaction to stuff like this.  I understand that no one here will betray me, but I can’t stop being afraid.’

{I’ll say it as many times as it takes, you’re going to be fine Luna.}

‘Are you sure you’re not the Goddess of the Sun, Tamamo, because you’re making me feel all warm and stuff.’

While Tamamo helped keep my mind from drifting off to unpleasant places, we quickly made it to the third floor and collected what we needed to.  After that, we headed back up to the top, turned in the things to the guild branch, and headed to the inn to turn in for the night.

Author's Note:

Atmos: Tamamo is really good moral support, isn't she?

I agree, though I don't understand how it turned into a little flirting at the end there.

Atmos: That's just how it goes sometimes.  If anything, it really helps Luna to not focus on the past as much.

You think that's what she was going for the entire time?

Atmos: I think that's about half of it.  The other half is she like flirting with Luna.

Understandable.